A Little Change for Fall (And a Minor Panic Attack)

Yeah!! The blog looks a little different. That's because I am a computer dummy and I almost lost it. The blog, that is. For those of you computer wizards out there... don't judge. I just wanted to make a few fun, random changes. That's all. Well, something went really haywire, and I couldn't get ANYTHING to show up on my blog site. Nothin', people. I was bent out of shape. After lunch, I went to my favorite little coffee joint, and I up-sized my latte to a grande in hopes of boosting my brainpower. After HOURS on this danged machine, I finally found a solution, and.... Here it is!! The old stuff is back and the new stuff is working. I suppose I owe a little "shout out" to Starbucks.

Monday Again?

Is it really here again? Didn't we just do Monday? Is it me or does it come WAY too fast? Where did the weekend go? I'll tell you where it went...

The boy has been playing football. Tackle football, Lord help me. When we finally got all our sports physicals and applications finished, the ONLY league still open was one in town. A league that TRAVELS. Yes, you read that right. Travels. To other places. Not here. Far away places. Entirely too far for a nice Saturday Pee Wee Football game. Ridiculous. Am I being too obvious about my feelings? I will take a pause and answer the questions that some of you are asking in your minds.

"Why on earth would you sign up a 9 year-old for a team that travels?"
"Isn't he spoiled enough?"
"Don't you have anything better to do?"
"Have you seen the price of gas??"

And to the questions, I respond...

I had NO IDEA we traveled. I had paid my money, met the coach, bought the cleats, attended the first practice, and BAM! "By the way, parents, our game tomorrow morning is 1 1/2 hours away."

So, we travel. And the boy loves playing tackle football. And I WILL NOT sign up for anymore teams or events until I ask if there is traveling involved.

By the way, I am fully aware of the insane price of gas these days. I've been buying lots of it lately.

Let's Go Kill Some Birds

Can you tell we are back in the Southeast? Is the ring of gunshots loud enough in your ear? Have you seen enough fishing pictures yet? How about some dead bird pictures to brighten your day!

My apologies to the anti-gun, anti-hunting, anti-dead animal readers out there. I'm sorry to say... this is what some boys do. This is what some big boys do, too. At least in this part of the world and in this family. Elijah LOVED his first "dove shoot." Some of the guys even refer to opening day as "Christmas Day." How twisted is that? Me? I went to the outlets with my mom... far away from the sound of gunshots. We had a little "Christmas Day" of our own!! Except what I spent that day is still FAR less than what Dan and the boy spent at Academy Sports getting ready for the dove-a-thon. The way I see it, they owe me.

First Day of Third Grade

I am slowly, but surely, catching up. The first day of school was actually two weeks ago, but here is the update...
Third grade. Geez. Where does the time go? Elijah was excited and scared. I tried to tell him that his feeling was totally normal. I kept reassuring him that there would be other "new kids" in his class... this is an Army base, for heaven's sake... there are kids coming and going all the time. Well, I was mistaken. He came home and proudly informed me,

"You were wrong, Momma. I was the ONLY person in my class who was NOT at this school last year."

What are the chances?!? Oh well. He wasn't thrilled about it, but he's doing just fine. He made a friend really quickly, and he doesn't seem to be bothered by being "new" anymore. I am hoping that everything will be "challenging" enough for him. Last year's teacher and class motivated and pushed him (a lot), and we soon learned that he savors a challenge. Time will tell, and I am giving things a few weeks to get settled. Then I'll turn into that rude, obnoxious parent who demands that their "brilliant child prodigy" be placed in a college-level class!!! Just kidding. I taught school just long enough to learn to distrust anything those parents said. And to run when I saw them coming. If anyone sees Elijah's teacher zoom by, please let me know.

I Promise This is The End

Or... "How I Spent My Summer Vacation (Part 5)" (Help me, Lord.)



Once we were somewhat unpacked and settled, we had our first visitors. Dan's mom and dad came to see us before school started for Elijah. We gave them plenty of "tours" (as well as we could, considering we still don't know where everything is!), and we saw a few "extra" sights. More on that later. The boy took his Nana and Pops fishing (imagine that) just about every day they were here.

There was plenty of museum visiting and lots of eating out. But, the most memorable event, by far, was our "road trip" to find the "Urquhart Family Grist Mill." To fully appreciate this part of the tale, you must know that my father-in-law is obsessed with family history. The man is a fountain of genealogy knowledge. Knowing that the "Urquharts" of long ago originally settled in NC, he is elated with the thought of visiting old cemeteries and historic family churches. Do I sound thrilled? (Don't worry...I get enough sermons. He tells me I should take all this family history and genealogy way more seriously than I do.) So off we went. In search of an old, run-down, barely-still-there grist mill that once belonged to an Urquhart. The drive was nice, and we ate BBQ by the Cape Fear River. The trouble was, we were going on some pretty weak directions from some folks who saw this place a few years ago. When (after HOURS driving around and looking) we called for clarification, none of them even gave similar directions or landmarks. I will defend myself at this point and say that I was the QUIETEST of the complainers in the car. Yes, eventually we found it. Dan and his dad went to this one last spot (kind of guessing at location), and they found it. Nana, myself, and Elijah were so tired. And hungry. And tired of looking and finding nothing... so, we sat in the car. And missed it. Oh well. At least I made Dan take the camera and get some proof that this place really exists. And my father-in-law? He was one happy family historian.

Are You Sick of This Yet? (How I Spent My Summer Vacation Part 4)

I hope this is not as boring for everyone else as it is for me... at this rate, I'll be posting Christmas pictures at Easter. (Hmmm... pretty typical.) It's not that I dislike re-living our summer adventures; I just have newer stuff to post and tell!

OK. While we were hanging out at my parents' house, Dan went on to Bragg... someone in this family has to make a living. We were still waiting on Housing and our stuff. My dad had to go to Charleston to work, and we bummed along! If I haven't made it clear before, this is my most favorite place on the planet. I was not about to pass up an opportunity to go. On the way down, we went to the SC State Museum. Very cool. Not as cool as sunset on Shem Creek, but fun in its own way.

The Megladon!!!!
Sure, science and learning is cool, but who can ignore the call of the tides!! (Don't tell my son that I said that...)

Feelin' Old (and Blessed)

At the risk of revealing how OLD I am, and at the risk of reminding myself just how OLD I am... Happy 15th Anniversary to us! Wow... 15 years. We we talking the other day about how 15 years of marriage seems small in light of people celebrating their 25th or 50th or even the 60th anniversary. But, 15 years is a real accomplishment! (At least in our minds it is!)